I think there’s some tire-kicking going around the league right now concerning Avs defenseman Brett Clark. In fact, I’m sure of it.

Brett Clark to Montreal for goalie Jaroslav Halak is one deal I’ve heard being kicked around right now. Like Peter Budaj, Halak is a Slovak. He has also been under the tutelage of Canadiens goalie instructor Roland Melanson, who has been turning out many fine goalies the last few years.

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We’ll see. I’d say 1 out of every 10 trade rumors actually comes true, so the numbers aren’t there that this could actually happen. But like I said, it seems to make sense for both teams.

Although, Peter Budaj was definitely very good tonight – there, are you happy, Boods fanboys? I just gave him a compliment. But one win over the worst road team in the league isn’t going to make me start throwing true hosannas Boods’ way just yet.

Clark, meanwhile, is in the first year of a two-year contract that pays $3.5 million per. As long as Halak is a Canadien, he’s going to be buried behind Carey Price, who might be the best really young goalie in the game.

Some strong words today from Mike Russo, the beat writer of the Wild for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Mike is one of my favorite guys in the league, but he’s laying the smackdown on Darcy Tucker on his blog today. I love it!

After it was decided today by the NHL that there shall be NO suspension for Darcy Tucker for his clipping penalty against Wild defenseman Nick Schultz Thursday night, Russo wrote this: Read more…

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.